


Sombra Online

by rogueofstorms



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hacker, Mischief, Pranks, Sarcasm, Sass, Snark, but Sombra won't leave me alone, idek where this is going really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2018-10-01 07:52:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10184471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rogueofstorms/pseuds/rogueofstorms
Summary: How did Sombra end up working for Talon, anyways? And why does Reaper seem to trust her enough to tolerate her jokes?Character exploration and filling in behind canon. I'll try to stay as canon-compliant as possible.





	1. Talonservant08

Sombra is now logged in. Current time is 20:22 GMT December 3, 2066

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from ShadowLover sent 10 hours ago

OMG UR LATEST HACK I CAN’T EVEN

>> Delete.

Message deleted.

 

from 76ers4Evr sent 7 hours ago

RE: France

God why won’t you just stop already. You aren’t helping anyone, let the authorities deal with corruption, like they’re supposed to.

>> Delete.

Message deleted.

 

from talonservant08  sent 7 minutes ago

Sombra,

We would like to contract your services.

We are willing to offer 2 million credits, for remote and physical devices.

Reply within 24 hours.

>> Reply.

From Sombra

Are you for real? That’s a lot of money. You think I don’t get paid like that already?

Whatever. If you’re for real, meet me in Missíon Dorado at 3am local time. Bring the money. And maybe we’ll talk.

>>Send

Reply sent.

 

* * *

 

The room was dark save for a purple glow from hard light windows floating in midair. The glow illuminated a woman’s face with bright purple eyes, and an answering fuschia from strips laid on her skull showed only a central meridian of hair between shaved sides.

Neon fuschia nails clicked on hard light and a keyboard as a deep search was started for the face behind the username “talonservant08”. Never used outside the “official” Sombra message boards, created 5 days ago within hours of the latest hack against LumeriCo. Account creation IP 2607:f0d0:1002:51::4, location Dallas, TX, tracks to a known cybercafe location.

A few more clicks, a quick running script, Ryddrel Cybercafe records: accessed. The scripts pulled security camera footage while the woman clicked through receipts and terminal use records. She could have run another script to pull the information, but the offer of 2 million credits intrigued her, and she wanted to do this the slow way to ensure good data.

A notification ping alerted Sombra that the first script finished running and was now sorting data. Her own manual clicks on the hard light screens showed her the internal IP for the terminal used, and from there it was easy to pull browser history and timestamps.

The terminal had only been used twice, once to send the message today, once to look at the news of her latest hack and create the message board account. Strange, or perhaps not, if she assumed that her mysterious would-be employer was trying to be smart about things.

Ping!

The security footage had been pulled. She dragged an index finger from the notification window to an empty space in front of her, using her other hand to shove open windows to either side. A pinch-and-drag movement increased the new window’s size and a few extra clicks pulled up the most recent camera footage. Like many cybercafes, Ryddrel used cameras at every station to monitor for illegal activity, just in case la policia subpoenaed them in regards to a case.

A relatively nondescript man sat at the terminal of interest. Brown skin, a bit darker than most native Mexicans, short black hair, sunglasses. Military bearing, either a trained mercenary or an ex-soldier if the extra pudge to his face was anything to go by. Sombra was betting on mercenary, hints of gray at the temples put the man at just a shade too young to have fought the Omnics, and the pudge was a good sign that he hadn’t been in an active shooting zone in a while.

The man in the security footage typed for a bit, clicked around Sombra’s forums, typed some more, then closed out his session and left. Three hard light clicks and a run command pulled up the street cameras for that district, and it wasn’t long before Sombra caught up to his realtime location. When the man behind talonservant08 pulled out a phone, four clicks, one script, and a backdoor password gave Sombra access to the nearest celltowers and their call logs.

“What is it,” a voice grumbled.

“Sir, I’ve sent the message,” talonservant08 replied.

“Good. Go back and keep an eye out for their reply.”

“Oh, there’s no need for that,” Sombra said as she inserted herself into their call.

“WHAT?” the grumbly voice sounded furious. “Major, this was supposed to be a secure line.”

“Lo siento, señor, but not much is secure when I’m around.”

“Sir, I--” the minion tried to apologise.

“Who is this,” Grumbly said. The minion shut his mouth and Sombra navigated over to another security camera to get a better look at the poor guy’s face. The minion looked torn between hanging up and pissing himself.

“Relajate, you wanted to get in touch with me, yes? Es Sombra. You or another bossman can meet me in Missíon Dorado in five hours with the money and we can work out the rest of the deal then.”

Silence from the other end, then, “Fine.” A faint ‘boop’ marked the other end of the line hanging up.

“Sir?” The minion asked into his phone. Sombra finished the disconnect and burst out laughing. 

“That’ll never get old,” the hacker said to herself. She closed down most of the open screens and pulled up an older file. Angry red lit up the room to show an eye-like symbol - a circle inside an eye-shape, with three dots above and three dots below. 

Three years and still Sombra had nothing on the mystery symbol. She’d been hacking a European conglomerate at the time and had exposed the CEO’s secretary as a corporate spy. Within minutes of posting a doxx dump, her system was hacked and only the red eye left on screen. It took Sombra almost a month to recover - a month in which she erased all traces of her old self from the records, upgraded herself with the latest implants and tech, and started her first searches into the origins of her attacker. 

Which reminded her - it was just about time to swap out for a new encryption method. Sombra changed keys randomly, using a number generator to provide the timeline. Sometimes she went through three algorithms a week, sometimes she spent months with the same one. She’d built her own servers to house data and her private bragging forum, hidden all over the world and cloud-linked using a protocol she’d written herself and never made public. No permanent address, just a series of middle-men and post boxes, and sometimes deepweb dead drops. Anything to keep the mystery eye away, and pissed off victims of her hacks from finding her.

Sombra shook her head, bright purple and white hair swishing across her face, to re-center her thoughts. Now was not the time for distraction. Whoever talonservant08 and Grumbly worked for, their networks and resources were extensive. Access to those would get her access to more connections, more information. 

One way or another, she would find out who was behind the Red Eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a cybersecurity nerd, so maybe that's why I like Sombra so much. I'd love to be her - if she wanted, she'd make a killing at pentesting. 
> 
> The IPv6 address is a real address currently in use, although I'm reasonably certain it isn't a private IP. Please don't do anything stupid with it.


	2. Poke(r)ing Around

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhm, Yeah. So I don't actually know Spanish, especially as it's used in Mexico. So if there's a better word for what I've said or implied, please let me know.

Missíon Dorado’s neighbourhood was quiet. Too quiet. Sombra felt a prickle of unease as she made her way to the old church - where was her old Los Muertos gang? Where were the people travelling to the market or on their way to or from working at LumeriCo?

The cyborg hacker tucked herself into a Los Muertos-claimed alley and pulled up an interface. She rewound available footage and watched as black-clad paramilitary clomped around. No wonder the locals were hiding - in Mexico, no one was willing to be on the streets when people looking like la policia were about. Pendejos, whoever these people belonged to. She’d dig up info on them later, after the meet.

Two hours to go.

Sombra blinked twice and crossed her right ring and pinky fingers, activating her thermoptic camouflage. She left the alley and went down the hill to the church, noting that shops had closed up early, probably because of the pendejos in black.

The missíon itself was grand as ever, whitewashed stone with elegant colonial-style arches on the upper level near the bells. Sombra blinked in time with the first four notes of an old song to activate her infrared vision. Two pendejos in black on the upper level, one on each roof overlooking the entrances to the missíon. More indistinct shapes inside the building - the old, thick stone walls muddying the temperature readings. 

Lucky for her, a pendejo minion was exiting the building, so she slipped in the door in his wake. She paused for a moment to make sure no one noticed, then set to studying the interior courtyard. 

One arched walkway to her left opened out to sea, and she marked that as a good escape route in case everything went to shit.  More immediately to her left in the anteroom were another two sentry men, one on the door and one on the courtyard approach. The door she had just come through had its own guard, matched by one standing in the corner of the courtyard’s far side.

The three-tiered fountain in the center was turned off, allowing one minion to sit on the ledge to watch the anteroom’s archway into the courtyard. Next to the minion stood what Sombra assumed was a bossman for the group.

The man stood at least two meters high, Sombra estimated his height at two point three meters, depending. A soft black hood and an owl-face bone mask hid any defining features, but Sombra could tell the man was military. Perfect posture, and the canisters on bandoliers indicated a man ready for any fight. A quick web image search matched the outfit to known Talon terrorist codenamed ‘Reaper’.

Huh. Sombra shrugged. It wouldn’t be the first time she had sold skills or tools to less-than-legal groups. She approached with all the stealth at her disposal, still invisible to the naked eye, and sat down next to the minion. Sombra closed her eyes and accessed the deepweb, hunting for anyone claiming to be a better hacker. She spent the next three hours harassing and humiliating a person going by SecondPie, leaving her signature skull design plastered over every screen they came into contact with.

“Uh, sir,” the minion said after fidgeting for a few minutes.

“What.” Owl-face turned to look at the minion. Sombra compared the voice to the person she’d spoken to on the phone; it was the person she had dubbed Grumbly. His voice definitely sounded better in person.

“I don’t think this person is coming, sir. Respectfully, sir,” the minion cowered under the blank stare of his boss.

“What time is it.”

“An hour past the agreed meet time, sir.”

Sombra let the Talon agents wallow for a couple minutes before she deactivated her thermoptic cloaking with a soft whirr. The apparent invisibility shimmered away to reveal a cloaked woman, the coattails floating impressively in the sea breeze. A skull-like mask covered her face, protecting her identity.

“Looking for me?” she asked, a mischievous smile on her lips. The minion jumped up and nearly fell backwards into the dry fountain. 

Sombra reached into her coat and pulled out a datacube. “I’ve authenticated your credentials, señor, and I’ll take your job.”

“Good,” Reaper held out a gloved hand expectantly. “The device, Sombra.”

“Ah-ah, payment first, señor.”

Reaper gestured to the minion with his other hand. The Talon agent pulled out a tablet and clicked around a few times before he put it away. A deposit confirmation notification popped up in Sombra’s peripheral vision, which she dismissed with a lazy wave of her fingers. She’d verify the details later; after the last person who tried to avoid paying her had suicided rather than deal with the stir she created, very few clients would dare even think of trying.

“The device?”

“What’s the magic word?” Sombra grinned.

“Quit messing around.”

Recognising that she had maybe pushed too far, Sombra stopped grinning and placed the datacube in Reaper’s waiting palm.

“Off you go then, amigos,” she said. Reaper stood silently for nearly a full minute, much like a cat, to ensure that it was clear he wasn’t leaving on her say-so. Sombra stifled a laugh.

“We’ll be in touch.” The owl-masked terrorist stalked out of the courtyard, his Talon minion falling in behind him like ducklings. Sombra gave them fifteen minutes to get out of her way before she reactivated her ‘invisibility’ and left the missíon for her temporary apartment.

 

* * *

 

Safely ensconced in her borrowed lodging, Sombra pulled up the camera feeds for Dorado, starting within an hour of agreeing to meet Reaper and Talon there. Each camera from outside the missíon was given its own screen, arranged  in the air to roughly match their real-world relative placements.

Two hours after piggybacking on the Talon agent’s phone call, ground agents started casing the missíon and neighbourhood. The locals saw which way the wind was blowing and quickly finished their business to get indoors. Children were gathered back inside, and doors locked and windows shuttered with a glare towards the military men crowding the streets.

Sombra scoffed. For an organisation that prided itself on underworld dealings, Talon was about as subtle as Overwatch. The hacker traced the agents back to their drop points, and from there accessed supposedly-secret government spy satellite footage to follow their helicopters and planes to base. Through various planes and vehicles, Sombra was able to track Reaper back to a warehouse-looking location outside Celaya, but the area was too remote for the kind of camera feeds the larger municipalities maintained.

There was also no way to know if this was headquarters or simply a temporary staging ground for their dealings with her. Sombra threaded her fingers together and pushed her hands away from herself to crack the knuckles.

“Time to do some digging,” she commented out loud.

First was the easy sources - news reports, wiki articles, studies done by major counter-terrorism organisations or for theses at universities, and eyewitness accounts. Wikis were a bust, mostly filled with rampant speculation and conspiracy theories, which Sombra filed away for later checking against some of her own pet projects. 

The news was the best source, covering actions such as a train heist that was impeded, but not stopped, by a rogue vigilante known as Jesse McCree. A flick of her fingers opened a new window to run a search on McCree, just in case, but the bulk of her processing went back to Talon. Other news-worthy Talon moments included their suspected involvement in the dissolution of Overwatch itself, back in 2065, although that was veering dangerously close to a conspiracy theory; everyone knew that Overwatch had destroyed itself, thanks to their covert operations division. The next Talon incident reported after that year wasn’t until early 2066.

The research papers were mostly attempts to analyse common patterns in operations and movements, but held nothing conclusive.

Sombra huffed with impatience. All this was to keep herself from getting bored while she waited for Talon to activate her datacube. She’d placed a remote exfiltration program for Talon to use, but also a backdoor for herself to gain access to Talon’s systems.

She dozed while she waited, eventually falling asleep on the bean bag chair that was her only concession to furniture needs. If anyone had been able to gain access while she slept, they would have seen a purple-and-black cloaked woman splayed over the bean bag like a starfish on a sea urchin, and the woman’s mouth hanging open to catch flies.

Sombra woke with the sun as it streamed through the uncovered windows and groaned. She wasn’t sure, but there was a good chance sleeping on the floor would have been preferable to the bean bag. The woman pulled up her forum inbox - “0 New Messages” - then checked to see if her Talon backdoor had checked in to command & control yet.

It had, and her exfiltration program was active as well. The two together were sending a steady stream of traffic through botnet members before it got to her - the details of what information Talon was pulling, and who from.

The United Nations. Information on current ex-Overwatch personnel, active base locations, and any current surveillance on either of the previous two categories. Based on how much of the information appeared to have been redacted prior to being scanned in, Sombra had a feeling that Talon would be contacting her again soon for more assistance.

Holding all the cards really was the best feeling in the world.


	3. Mr. Owl

Sombra is now logged in. Current time is 16:53 GMT July 24, 2067

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>> Sort > by username > ShadowLover

Displaying first 5 of 20

 

from ShadowLover sent 134 days ago

RU OKAY?

 

from ShadowLover sent 120 days ago

WHERE R U? PLS DONT BE DEAD.

 

from ShadowLover sent 119 days ago

IS IT A SECRET? IS THAT WHY U RNT POSTING? 

TALK TO ME.

 

from ShadowLover sent 100 days ago

im sorry if im bothering u

 

from ShadowLover sent 95 days ago

RU OKAY

 

>> Select All

>> Delete

20 messages deleted. Returning to default view.

 

Displaying 5 messages.

 

from talonservant24 sent 136 days ago

Sombra,

Will pay 3 million credits for device to be specified.

Reply within 24 hours.

>> Reply sent 136 days ago

 

from talonservant37 sent 90 days ago

Sombra,

We need another 3 of those devices.

Reply within 24 hours.

>> No reply sent. One note.

>> View Note

Displaying Note

Hacking their phones is sooooo easy, dios.

 

from talonservant40 sent 85 days ago

Sombra,

Please stop calling our agent phones.

>> Reply Sent 83 days ago.

>> View Reply

Displaying Reply to talonservant40 sent 83 days ago

No

 

from talonservant41 sent 80 days ago

Sombra,

You have made your point. 

Call to discuss within 24 hours.

 

from 76ers4Evr sent 30 days ago

RE: Chile

Is there a point to this, really? Just because Overwatch is gone, doesn’t mean we need new vigilantes trying to ‘help’. 

>> Delete

Message Deleted.

* * *

Today was going to be a good day, Sombra could tell. She’d woken up to an extra 5 million credits in her accounts, courtesy of a large bit of corporate espionage she had completed for a client.

Sombra left her apartment-of-the-week and went down to the local market to pick up food for the day, then spent an amused twenty minutes or so passively collecting information from passerby’s electronics. One man had an encrypted text app so that he could text his mistress without his husband finding out. Messages like “can’t wait to see you puddums” made Sombra want to puke. Baseline people were so  _ weird _ .

She forwarded a copy of those texts to the man’s husband.

The not-quite-a-girl check her various (mostly fake-identity-held) bank statements and was pleased to note that Talon’s nearly regular jobs had left her swimming in liquid assets. It was a heady feeling, having grown up as poor as she had been. Even in Los Muertos she hadn’t touched this kind of money. Sombra made a note to be careful about spending too much at a time - it wouldn’t do to go leaving footprints this early in the game.

Sombra dove down an alley to her right and used an elbow to slam the man lurking there against a wall and hold him there.

“Why you following me, señor?” she asked. The man looked frightened for a moment before he pulled himself together.

“Got orders,” he said. Sombra noticed that his eyes had taken stock of the alley - entrance, exit, the fire escape behind Sombra on her right side that was deeper in.

“Who?”

The man spat and looked stubborn. Sombra studied him, then grinned when she noticed a small scar under his left ear. ‘Bingo’ she thought. The scar was typical of baseliners who had gotten a minor implant, usually a phone earpiece, but sometimes also a satellite signal booster, or a near field communications device to act as anti-theft for their phone.

A flick of her left wrist brought up an interface filled with shortcut buttons for Sombra’s proprietary hacking setup. One click to define the target device, one for the method, one for the payload, and a fourth to start the process.

“You don’t have to tell me anything, señor, I’m just gonna find it out anyway,” Sombra informed the man.

The man stayed silent.

“Have it your way.” Sombra shrugged. A ping audible only to her was the notification of payload delivery. A pinch-and-drag with her left forefinger and thumb together opened a screen with the information that had been pulled, and Sombra casually used the man as a leaning-post while she reviewed.

“Talon? They still estar que ladra over the phone thing?” Sombra laughed and let the man down from against the wall. “Get lost, pendejo.”

The man ran and Sombra sauntered out of the alley like nothing had happened.

 

* * *

 

A full week since she had caught an agent of Talon tailing her and they were still doing it. The man she’d caught had been replaced, and this time Talon cycled into a new agent each day. They weren’t particularly difficult to spot - most of the issue Sombra was having was the nuisance of being watched. She didn’t like  _ anyone _ tracking her. If Talon wasn’t careful, she’d data bomb their nearest base in retaliation.

Sombra never got the chance.

Nearly a full week since she’d exposed the agent, Sombra was seated in a new apartment, researching her next target. Sounds of conflict wafted into the one-room apartment from outside, which she ignored after making sure no one had a bomb or something equally annoying. When the sound of booted feet running around the lower levels filtered upwards, Sombra was too deep into her research to double check the cause. Raids happened all the time, and this apartment was technically unoccupied, so there was no reason to open the door. Research was more important.

And then the EMP went off, taking Sombra with everything else electronic in the building. The world went dark.

Sombra came to in a windowless, featureless room. She was as far away from the lone door as possible, and nothing digital or digitally-connected was visible to her. Great.

With nothing else to do, Sombra started a full diagnostic scan. Any EMP that could take her down had to be new, and had to be special. She’d spent a lot of effort making her augmentations immune to standard EMPs, and clearly would need to upgrade the minute she got out of wherever ‘here’ was.

The door opened and Reaper walked in. He stopped roughly in the center of the room and crossed his arms, his mask facing Sombra.

Sombra pulled herself upright into a sitting position against the wall at her back and waited for Reaper to speak first.

The silence pressed in on the young woman until she felt ready to burst, but she held herself in check. Reaper shifted but said nothing. Sombra quirked an eyebrow at him and smirked. Reaper’s mask turned towards a wall, then tilted up slightly towards the ceiling light, then finally returned to staring at Sombra.

Sombra decided to break their stalemate.

“Look, Reaper,” she said. “If you’re gonna play good-cop-bad-cop, you’re wearing entirely the wrong uniform for it.”

“What.”

“Well, obviously I’m your prisoner or something, so the next logical step is to interrogate, si? Which means one of you is gonna be the good cop, and someone else is gonna be the bad cop. Now, obviously you ain’t gonna be a good cop anytime soon, but still. Least you could do for a girl is wear the uniform.”

“I’m too old for this shit,” Reaper grumbled. “Here’s our offer, Sombra, or whatever your name really is.”

“An offer? Man, and here I thought this was a kidnapping, señor. If you wanted to make me a job offer you could’ve just  _ asked _ .”

Reaper took a deep, visible breath. “Talon would like to retain your services, permanently. No side jobs, no freelancing, just Talon.”

“And if I say no?”

“You won’t.” 

Sombra tilted her head, then used microgestures to pull up a special screen above her head shaped like a Spanish question mark.

“Will you quit messing around.” 

“I’d say lo siento, señor, but I’d be a liar. What’s the deal? Gonna haveta be a damn good offer to make me behave.”

“Full benefits. Talon membership above the rank-and-file. You’d work directly under me. Generous pay - especially if you can keep delivering those datacubes we’ve bought from you. Full terms and details can be discussed once you’ve accepted the offer.”

“No. Full terms and details be discussed  _ now _ , señor. I want minimum two million credits per year, base pay. Plus my usual rate for any devices, hacks, or information I am asked to provide. Plus discretionary funding for any upgrades I need to make to my systems.”

“Denied. One point five million credits per year, plus half your usual rate. No discretionary funds.”

“Chale, Mr. Owl. I have better things I could be doing, you know. One point nine, seven-eighths my rate, and discretionary.”

“Denied. One point five, three-quarters, and discretionary.”

“And a cat.”

“Fine. You start immediately. Follow me over to the quartermaster and we’ll get you situated.”


	4. Author's Note

I'm sorry everyone. My muse for this appears to have died, and I didn't really even have a plot for this to begin with. If the muse returns, I'll try and continue, but otherwise this is officially a deadfic. ;_;


End file.
